books.google.com - The desire to move viewers out of the role of passive observers and into the role of producers is one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century art. This tendency can be found in practices and projects ranging from El Lissitzky's exhibition designs to Allan Kaprow's happenings, from minimalist objects to...http://books.google.com/books/about/Participation.html?id=elVKAQAAIAAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareParticipation

Participation

The desire to move viewers out of the role of passive observers and into the role of producers is one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century art. This tendency can be found in practices and projects ranging from El Lissitzky's exhibition designs to Allan Kaprow's happenings, from minimalist objects to installation art. More recently, this kind of participatory art has gone so far as to encourage and produce new social relationships. Guy Debord's celebrated argument that capitalism fragments the social bond has become the premise for much relational art seeking to challenge and provide alternatives to the discontents of contemporary life. This publication collects texts that place this artistic development in historical and theoretical context.

Participation begins with writings that provide a theoretical framework for relational art, with essays by Umberto Eco, Bertolt Brecht, Roland Barthes, Peter Burger, Jen-Luc Nancy, Edoaurd Glissant, and Felix Guattari, as well as the first translation into English of Jacques Ranciere's influential "Problems and Transformations in Critical Art." The book also includes central writings by such artists as Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, Joseph Beuys, Augusto Boal, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. And it features recent critical and curatorial debates, with discussions by Lars Bang Larsen, Nicolas Bourriaud, Hal Foster, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist.

User ratings

Review: Participation

Claire Bishop only assembled these essays to make her point. I was hoping for more of her writing.Read full review

Review: Participation

User Review - Kate - Goodreads

a bit slow to begin with Umberto Eco, but i think he's importnant so i read his whole thing. now on to Barthes. i'll let you know when i get to the inspirational part that turns my head around. but at present still waiting.Read full review

About the author (2006)

Claire Bishop is the author of Installation Art: A Critical History and a contributor to many art journals, including ArtForum, Flash Art, and October. She is a Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Warwick.